TRENDS in HOUSE RENTALS

TRENDS in HOUSE RENTALS

Living in my own house for several years now, I remember the times when we stayed in rented premises. Not one, but several of them one after another, for quite a number of years.

When given marching orders by the landlord, house hunting was begun, with added experiences of the previous house-hunt. Friends and relatives were roped in. All our spare time in the evenings and on Sundays were devoted to it. Brokers were not much in vogue in that period (1960’s to 1980’s) but were consulted.

Most of the premises turned out to be too small, cubby hole types (Landlord – Why keeps any extra furniture? Daytime you work, night you sleep! Why extra space ?).

Some were assembled by connecting left over spaces of the landlord’s house. A room here, another room a few steps up, the kitchen the size of a cabinet squeezed in between the landings. Toilet somewhere fitted in.

We became experts in recognizing a vacant house, as we browsed the streets on our scooter. Most landlords were wary of putting up ’To-let’ signs, so this was the potent method of looking for one.

Premises which were reasonable and comfortable had uncomfortable rents. And so it went till we settled for a place as the deadline to vacate was getting close. This was pretty common then, and the same scenario continues today. Exception being, that instead of house hunting by yourself, the brokers have taken over, and you are unable to get a house without their help (and of course their fat fee).

One notable feature of houses up to the1990’s was that premises for rent were bare premises, no fans even. You brought your own ceiling fans, had them hung up and took them away to your next rented place. By the 1990’s, landlords started putting in ceiling fans, notably to get extra rent, but more so as other houses on rent had fans too.

With ceiling fans taken care of, next was the requirement of hot water in bathrooms..Most people were using immersion rods to heat water. But it was in a bucket and not running hot water through taps. Safety issues were also there. Tenants started requesting landlords to install geysers. Geysers are permanent fixtures requiring plumbing work and could not be just hung up when you took a house on rent and taken down when you vacated it.

So by early 1990’s houses for rent started having geysers in bathrooms apart from ceiling fans. This was certainly beneficial to both. The landlords could get a better rent and avoid any disturbing rework by the tenant. The tenant benefitted by having not to bother about any further installation work. Just move in. Living standards were certainly getting better

Living in Northern India, you face summer and heat for more about 9 months. Winters are severe but short. Everybody used Desert Coolers then, and a considerable uses them still. There were portable ones which you could move from room to room or verandahs. Larger window types gave better cooling were fixed to windows. These had larger water tanks so less frequent water topping up.

Increase in living standards (also to keep up with The Joneses) brought in Air conditioners. Tenants brought in their own AC’s and installed in windows. This involved a lot of remodeling of the window, its grill and the Landlords permission too. The landlord was happy to give permission as all the hassle of making the opening etc was suffered by the tenant.

By the year 2000, landlords stated putting in AC’s too. It increased the status of the premises considerably and of course the rent. With the coming of split AC’s, and they becoming fashionable too; houses are now fitted with it. The situation now is that the tenant searches for houses which have AC’s fitted in; rejecting the one’s which do not have them.

That’s Ceiling fans to Geysers to Air Conditioners. Certainly the Standard of Living has become better ! Achche Din for sure !!